Posts by regis

I was rooting for the Artemis team today! Not that I don’t like the Luna Rossa team, it was just that I really wanted the swedish team to win. I didn’t want the italian team to win with a clean sweep. I didn’t get my wish, Luna Rossa sailed a perfect race and they deserved to win, but Team Artemis made several mistakes including two unecessary out-of-bound penalties. It’s also sad for the Artemis team. A win today would have been so right. Congratulation to Luna Rossa for winning the semi-final. They will race against Team New Zealand next Saturday. Like Max Sirena said: “We hope that our design changes can make us more competitive than last time we meet Team New Zealand”. Let’s hope so, otherwise it will be again a...

Bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) are remarkable for their great age and their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. In fact, it seems that one secret to their longevity is the harsh environment in which most bristlecone pines grow. We met our friend Daniel and Paule at the Grandview campground in the Inyo National Forest for the 4th of July weekend. This is a very rudimentary campground but it’s really cheap ($5/day) and really close the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Bristlecone pines in the White Mountains grow between 9,800 and 11,000 feet (3000–3400 m) above sea level. Conditions are harsh, with cold temperatures, a short growing season, and high winds. Bristlecone pines in these high-elevation environments grow very slowly, and in some...

Antelope Canyon was on my bucket list for a long time. I first found out about Antelope Canyon when I saw Tuan’s images of it. After some research, I found out that the sunbeams can reach the bottom of the canyon about 3 weeks before the summer solstice and 3 weeks after. We decided that this year was the year we would go. From the Bay Area, there are multiple options to go to Page,AZ but the cheapest we found was to fly to Las Vegas and rent a car and drive to Page. Day 1: Las Vegas to Page, AZ We took a very early flight to Vegas, arriving at 8:30am. At that time, it was already 92F, and it was promising to get hotter. I’m a coffee junkie and I always look for local coffee shops to try. This time I went to  sunrise coffee to get my...

The first race with two boats of the Louis Vuitton Cup happened Saturday in San Francisco. It was Emirates Team New Zealand vs. Luna Rossa. Team New Zealand was the favorite, but the question was how good are those kiwis? The answer is those kiwis are fast, really fast. In a 20 knots breeze (close to the race limit), they beat Luna Rossa by more than 5 minutes. Here is the difference right after the start, Team New Zealand is foiling at full speed, while Luna Rossa is barely foiling. Team New Zealand was looking really strong on each leg of the race. To illustrate the difference between the two teams compare the boats positions in the images pairs taken at the same spot. After the tack, Team New Zealand gets its boat regaigning speed a lot faster than Luna...

A quick postcard from San Francisco on this 4th of July. The America’s cup opening day was today. While the races only begin on sunday (with no real elimination until August 6th). It’s was really fun to see all the sailors and the Louis Vuitton’s cup (brand new cup) and the America’s cup up close. Let’s the race begin.